Friday, 30 December 2005

2005 Blogging Highlights

Seems like the time of year to do a Blog related review of the year so here goes…

Best Discovery:

ActiveWords, it’s awesome software. If you haven’t tried it, go and get your 60 day free trial right now. I held out for a whole 12 days before purchasing and now would not use a PC without it. Thanks to Hobie at Mindjet for introducing me to it.

Best Blog Event:

It’s not a blog specific event but meeting many fellow CAD Bloggers and Readers(!) at Autodesk University was a highlight.

“Lets just end it here.....I AM THE STIG.... no-one knows my face so I can remain anonymous..mwahahahaha.” Pauline Jordan

At this point all those who don’t watch Top Gear wonder what is a Stig?

Best Podcast:

I have heard many great Podcasts this year but Skepticality - The Message stood out for the worst reason. Some question the value of Podcasts as a communication tool when there are so many other channels: blogs, email, web pages etc.

I found Skepticality several months after it started and was working through the show archive, in order, enjoying hearing Derek and Swoopy’s scientific, critical, skeptical, and humorous point of view of the crazy world we live in. I thought the show was great and then I heard The Message.

Words on a screen could never convey the emotion of that Podcast as Swoopy shared the shock and horror experienced when a friend, colleague or partner is in life threatening circumstances. Thankfully, after a close call, the outcome is positive and it was great to hear Derek return in the December editions of Skepticality. Looking forward to hearing more from both of you in the new year and wishing Derek all the best with his on going recovery.

To the 9047 Visitors – to date – the South Island is much prettier place than a photo can ever show.

Busiest Month:

March, thanks to the somewhat controversial AutoCAD/ADT 2006 “Blogger Preview” posts and being “Shaaned”* my average 10,000 visits jumped to over 25,000. Thanks to TypePad for absorbing the extra bandwidth!

Splitting the CAD and other content to separate blogs. Initially I thought it was a big mistake as for several months the only visitor to the other blog was me! That has changed and it has been rewarding watching it grow an audience of it’s own.